(Written by Intern, Sean Barry)
Longing, Savi Gabizon’s remake of his own 2017 film, is unable to reach the emotional depths it aims to achieve. Plagued with script errors and bizarre character choices, one wonders what an audience should feel by the end. People disappear for long stretches of time, and mostly everyone seems so unconcerned for the problematic nature of certain elements. Although it is never supposed to be depressingly upsetting, the subject matter necessitates a mood of sorrow that is simply absent. The score appears to be the only aspect adding the proper tone. Without sound, the dismaying nature of the material would be lost, with mostly neutral actors in a brightly lit frame being visible onscreen.
Daniel (Richard Gere) is in a powerful position at his job, but everything changes when he meets with his old college girlfriend, Rachel (Suzanne Clement). She tells him that they had a son named Allen (Tomaso Sanelli) who Daniel never met, and Allen just passed away at the age of nineteen. Daniel dedicates the next few weeks to learning as much as he can about his child: who he liked, what he enjoyed doing, and how he spent his time. One such discovery is that Allen was in love with his teacher, Alice (Diane Kruger), but Daniel soon learns that the love was more than simple teenage yearning. Allen committed several questionable acts during the later part of his life, which causes Daniel to reevaluate his perception of someone he did not know.
Had this been an examination of a father finding out how wonderful his son is only for the ugly truth to shake his preconceived notions, far more interesting results would have come about. Throughout Daniel’s search, he finds out that Allen was dealing drugs, fully obsessing over his teacher, and drugged a teenager to have sex with her. However, Daniel remains passive throughout, never changing his point of view to understand what actually happened. He even goes as far as to call Allen’s assault of an underage girl “youthful foolishness”. Alice acts surprisingly amicable towards Daniel at first, but when he learns that she filed a police report against Allen for stalker behavior, he freaks out at her. Daniel excuses Allen’s behavior, saying that he was just in love, and Alice should have been grateful.
The performances do not help bring any of the emotional core to the forefront. Richard Gere and Diane Kruger have long careers of admirable performances, so seeing them both perform without their usual gravitas brings up questions. Since they and many of the other actors have similar issues, it likely becomes the fault of director Savi Gabizon for not effectively setting them free with their instincts. Or, as previously mentioned, the screenplay does not give them enough to do. Alice is a key figure in the first half, but then disappears right after the halfway mark. After making sparse appearances, Rachel’s husband has a talk with Daniel about how he feels cut out of the action and wants to help. He almost literally says he feels underused in the story and wants to be utilized more, only to be ignored again.
Those who do get time to have dialogue that goes deeper are unfortunately not rewarded. In a scene which would never occur in real life, Daniel is allowed to sit in Alice’s classroom to understand more about Allen. The students then grill Daniel about his past, and Alice completely allows him to spill information about his trauma to high schoolers he does not know. Characters often say exactly what they are thinking without any room for subtlety or deeper motivations. Most bizarrely, Daniel is noted for wanting nothing to do with children for twenty years. Then suddenly, he is absent from his job for weeks on end as he investigates Allen’s life. No one even acknowledges why the protagonist’s motivations are what they are. A more expressive script with more personal struggles for Daniel could have made for an intriguing study into grief and loss. Instead, he spends almost two hours defending his criminalistic offspring who is essentially a stranger.
No one will be Longing to see this movie when it releases in theatres on June 7th.
